Labels: Forcefield
Review by: Kunal Nandi
The Wayward are by far the most underrated band I have ever completely given my heart and soul to. They feature one Nick Skrobisz, a remarkable guitar player with a unique gravelly singing style that used to play in the similarly brilliant and utterly ignored Carrion. That band blended AmRep styled noise-rock, hardcore inflected doom pacing and mathy weirdness. The Wayward are a less heads-down proposition, like a relentlessly rocking Faraquet, with Skrobisz noodling like his life depended on it at times, and at others wrenching the strangest, Arabic inflected tonal passages from his axe, given to flights of arpeggiation when you’re not looking whilst still delivering a pummelling amount of crunch. Ably backed up by a rhythm section that keep things fluid throughout the very busy arrangements, everything is propelled relentlessly forward, with second track “Ripcord” being the hit for me. There’s a Birthday Party cover on the flip which sounds great and is a reminder that I should really check them out too. It depresses me that this band is so underrated. Make me happy people.